An Ironing Board for Wheelchair Users – Example Challenge

The Problem as it stands

Whilst working for a charity called DEMAND that designs and manufactures bespoke pieces of disability equipment, a request came to us to create a simple ironing board that could be comfortably used by a wheelchair user, the ironing board had to be able to fold for storage purposes the same as a standard board would. Upon meeting the client the issue with the current ironing board became clear, when the client approached the ironing board in his wheelchair he was unable to get close enough to comfortably and effectively iron. This was due to his knees hitting the crossed metal legs that are standard on most affordable ironing boards.

At DEMAND we only produce bespoke equipment that does not already exist in the market, so as part of our standard procedure we researched into alternate affordable domestic ironing boards that may be suitable and throughout the disability sector to see if a specialist board existed, designed for purpose. To our surprise the only existing product we found was very expensive and cumbersome, as it had to be wall mounted in a sort of wall mounted cabinet, folding down when in use on a hinge system. This was by no means suitable for our client not only in a financial sense but also due to it being permanently fixed and overly large. So it was deemed that a more appropriate solution was required.

The challenge

So our challenge to you, the cracked-it community is to offer us simple, affordable solutions to this conundrum and to post those solutions in the ‘Ideas and Solutions’ section.Your solution posts can take any form you like from a simple paragraph explaining your idea to a full blown article with design drawings and diagrams, it’s entirely up to you.